For those of you who have been waiting patiently for ANBERNIC's answer to the Nintendo DS to drop, you're in luck, as the release date, pricing, and specs have leaked thanks to an early listing on AliExpress that has now been removed.
Unfortunately, the RG DS is going to be a lot less powerful than we all previously thought, and maybe more expensive too.
We covered another 'leak' and subsequent reveal of the RG DS at the beginning of October, and the design was more than what we could have hoped for. A dual-screen device with matching screen sizes for under $100 - it's the stuff that dreams are made of for handheld enthusiasts like us.
Pictures aside, however, we haven't had much in the way of anything else. There have been a few videos uploaded to their YouTube channel, but in typical fashion, they don't mention pricing or release info.
The console has appeared on AliExpress with a specs list that falls short of what we thought we would be getting with the RG DS. What's more, the 'sub $100 price tag' is actually a pre-order price of $108.99 with an RRP of $114.99... is anything real about this handheld? Did they misinform us for media attention?
The RG DS seems to be powered by a Rockchip RK3568 chipset and 3 GB of RAM, with an ARM G52 GPU and 4000 MAHs of battery.
When you consider the fact that there are handhelds out there like the MANGMI Air X that use a Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 processor for $79 (current price), I would be hoping for something a little more powerful in a dual-screen device than a chipset released 5 years ago, especially since the MagicX Zero 40 uses a 1.8GHz AllWinner Cortex-A53 A133P CPU.
Each screen has a 640 x 480 pixel display, which is probably repurposed from other ANBERNIC handhelds, too. It also makes it an awkward resolution to upscale Nintendo DS games at 2.5x.
It runs on Android 14, which isn't bad but isn't a real surprise either, and unfortunately, the whole thing feels like it's been thrown together with old parts and given a cool exterior to hide it all.
That's from talking about the gubbins alone, however, and I'm well aware that I could change my mind once I get hold of one and test it out. That being said, I'm left feeling a little 'meh' after reading these specs. Let's hope the RD DS is that good, it makes me want to give up using my DS Lite... though it's looking unlikely!
